US965405A - Button-loop for overalls. - Google Patents

Description

A. E. PLOWMAN. BUTTON LOOP FOR OVERALLS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 3, 1909.

Patented July 26, 1910.

llllllll llll UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT E. PLOWMAN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO SCOVILL MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, A. CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

BUTTON-LOOP FOR OVERALLS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed July 3, 1909.

Patented July 26, 1910.

Serial No. 505,893.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT E. PLOWMAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Button- Loops for Overalls, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

Overalls are commonly made with suspender straps permanently or otherwise attached at the back, and adapted to be brought over the wearers shoulders and cletachably fastened in front to buttons fixed to the bib or other front portion of the garment. Metal loops, usually of wire, are commonly used to efiect this detachable fastening, but they are apt to become detached from the buttons owing to the movements of the wearers body as the wearer changes position when at work. Most of these loops have engaged the button by a spring action, but this is insufficient to prevent accidental disconnection. Some attempts have been made to provide a loop to meet such contingencies, and this invention has this object in view.

The invention consists of a loop, having a swinging button-engaging element, connected to but ofiset from the body of the loop in such way that the button-engaging element has to be turned practically at rightangles to the body of the loop in order to engage with and be disengaged from the button. The parts of the loop are rigid, as opposed to resilient, and dependence is placed upon obstructive parts, rather than springy parts, to hold the loop in engagement with the button, all as I will proceed now more particularly to set forth and finally claim.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating the invention, in the'several figures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure l is a front elevation showing enough of a bibbed overall to illustrate the construction and operation of the improvement, the loop at the observers left-hand side being in normal engagement with the adjacent button, and the loop at the observers righthand side showing the obstructive character of the loop with relation to its adjacent button. Fig. 2 is a front elevation, and Fig. 3 is a side elevation, on a larger scale, of the loop detached. Fig. 4: is a side elevation, showing by full and dotted lines respectively the normal engagement of the loop with a button and the operation of engaging or disengaging a button. Fig. 5 is a top plan view, with the button-engaging element turned out.

The part 1 may be taken to represent the bib or other front part of a pair of overalls or any other garment to be supported by suspenders, having the buttons 2 attached thereto. The suspender ends are represented at 3, and they terminate in loops 4, adj ustably secured by slides 5 of an approved construction. In these loops 4 are secured the body portions 6 of the button-loops of this invention, and since both button-loops are alike, a description of one applies to both.

The button-loop may be made of wire, and its body has an eye 7 to engage the suspender end loop; the rigid neck 8 formed by a parallel arrangement of the wire parts in close relation, to afford a mutual support, and a button entrance loop comprising the outwardly extended ends 9 formed by an open parallel arrangement of the wire ends, which ends are bent back toward the center of the body and terminate in eyes 10 standing off from said ends, or offset horizontally or nearly so, or at right angles to the said ends and separated sufl'lciently to form a contracted passage for the button shank. In these eyes is hinged the button-engaging element 11, made of wire, in loop form, and capable of swinging in said eyes 10. The offsetting of the eyes throws the button-engaging loop and consequently the button -head away from or forward of the button entrance and exit space 12 to prevent the upper edge of the button from entering the entrance loop by a tilting movement and thus avoid accidental upward escape of the button during the movements of the wearer. The offset eyes, therefore, in a word, aid efiectually in preventing the escape of the button, excepting when the button-engaging loop is turned up into the dotted line position, Fig. 4:. All of these wire parts are rigid, or without resilience, and they are of such dimensions that the button head cannot escape from the loop in the direction of the axis of its shank. In other words, the openings in the buttonengaging element 11 and the button entrance loop are narrower than the diameter of the button head, and will not pass over such button head axially when the button is in engagement with the loop and substantially parallel therewith.

The spacing of the Suspender-engaging eye at a distance from the button entrance loop lessens the tendency of the upper portion of the device to tilt outward and downward under the weight of the overalls, which are suspended from the offset button-engaging element, and also prevents thebutton entrance loop of the upper portion from turning at a right angle to the button engaging element when the suspender straps are slightly slackened. By having the elongated rigid neck between the Suspender-engaging eye and button entrance loop of the upper portion of the device, the suspender straps must be slackened much more inorder to allow the button entrance loop to tilt at a right angle and thus become accidentally disengaged from the button, than would be the case if the suspender strap were engaged directly with the bar which forms the upper boundar of the button entrance loop.

In orc er to apply the loop to or remove it from a button, its button-engaging element 11 must be turned outwardly on its hinges, substantially at right angles to the body of the loop, as indicated in dotted lines Fig. 4, and as shown in Fig. 5, and the button carmay be slipped into or out from the buttonengaging element edgewise through the open spaces 12 and 13 in the button entrance loop. So long as the button-engaging element 11 hangs down, the eyes 10 and neck 8 obstruct the entrance and escape of the button, as

illustrated in Fig. 1, right-hand side, and it is only by swinging the element 11 outwardly, as in dotted lines Fig. 4, or as in Fig. 5, that the loop can be engaged with and disengaged from the button. Obviously such a movement of the element is practically impossible in ordinary use, and hence there is no liability of the loops becoming accidentally detached from the buttons.

In the common form of wire loops, :1 number of sizes of the button-engaging part is required to adapt the loops to buttons of various makes; for the common overall buttons are of metal, and their shanks are of a wide range of dimensions, and especially diameter, to accommodate the difierent kinds of metal and other fasteners. By my construction, a single size loop is applicable to practically all of the more common and usual buttons. The loop manufacturer, therefore, has very decided economical and trade advantages in a loop of this sort.

Notwithstanding the title herein and in the claims hereof, it is to be understood that the use of the invention is not limited to overalls.

hat I claim is 1. A button-loop for overalls, comprising a rigid, non-resilient body portion, having a suspender-engaging loop, and an independent button entrance loop transversely nary rower than the diameter of the button-head andhaving a contracted button shank passa e and provided with eyes at said passage of set substantially at right angles, and a neck connecting said loops, and a rigid nonresilient button-engaging element hinged in said ofi'set eyes, whereby the button may be engaged and disengaged only through the button entrance loop and when the buttonhead is presented thereto edgewise. ried along with it, so that the button head i 2. A button-loop for overalls, constructed of wire and comprising a body portion having a loop to engage the suspender end, a rigid neck formed by a parallel arrangement of the wire in close relation, and a button entrance loop comprising outwardly eXtended ends formed by an open parallel arrangeinent ofthe wire ends, said ends being bent back toward the center of the body and terminating in eyes standing off from said ends substantially at right angles to the body and separated to form a contracted button-shank passage, and a button engaging element hinged to and adapted to swing in said eyes.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 1st day of July A. D. 1909.

ALBERT E. PLOWMAN.

Witnessesz PERCY WARNER, GEO. E. TOMPKINS.

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